RVHS football seeing lots of positives going into season
WARSAW – Coach Bob Forgrave is seeing lots of positives as the Black Bears prepare for their 2016 varsity football season.
“We’ve done well in our scrimmages, better than we’ve done in the past,” he said. “We’ve moved the ball on offense and gotten some turnovers on defense. Our quarterback has been doing well, we have some good running backs and some good wide receivers. Our work ethic on the team is very positive and that also is good.”
Another positive is the coaching staff.
“We have a lot of experience on it and it’s the first year that I’ve been here that we’ve had most of the same guys back,” Forgrave said. “We also now have the two quarterbacks with the most wins in River View history on our staff with Fred Williams and Mike Hemming. I don’t think any other high school, college or NFL team could say that.”
The staff also includes Tyler McKee, Gary Giffin, Doug Sampsel, Tim Sposato and Ron Vipperman. Forgrave also spoke highly of the junior high coaches Aaron Smith, Joe Alford and Cal Shrimplin.
“We have seven River View graduates on our staff and they understand what we are talking about when it comes to Black Bear pride,” Forgrave said.
He also is excited to have four hardworking seniors on his roster of about 50 athletes.
“Trace Lingo is a leader on the team,” Forgrave said. Caden Croft has been working extra hard and has changed his body physically. Shawn Stewart is very talented and Tyler Gano is a great kid.”
The Black Bears, who were 1-9 last year, play in the ECOL and only have one new opponent on their schedule this season.
“We dropped Zanesville and picked up Harrison Central,” Forgrave said. “They are a playoff team. They aren’t Zanesville, but they are still a good football team.”
His goals for the team this year are to keep improving, play for 48 minutes, play tough, physical, clean football and eliminate mistakes and penalties.
“We also want the kids to be selfless and great teammates,” Forgrave said. “You can’t be a great team without selflessness. We’ve got to be positive with one another.”
Members of the team got some extra time to work together this year by attending a seven on seven event in Dublin that included 52 teams and one in Danville that had four teams in attendance.
“This also is the first year we’ve had three scrimmages so that’s five times our kids have gotten to play together before the season starts,” Forgrave said.
The 2016 season is only Forgrave’s third year with the Black Bears, but in that time he’s already seen a lot of changes.
“In just three to four months our Touch Down Club was able to raise $60,000 for updates to the weight room, the locker room and 25 second clocks,” he said.
They’ve also been able to get new lights on the field, get new sod on the practice field and do updates to the scoreboard and Forgrave said a lot of this was all donated.
“There are people out there that care about our program and the kids are feeling that,” he said.
River View opens its season at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26 at home against Heath.
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